Instant Family Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after the rather weak ‘Daddy’s Home’ and ‘Daddy’s Home 2’, I have to admit that Sean Anders and Mark Wahlberg finally came up with an interesting story. Indeed, there is no denying that the adoption of foster children is so much more intriguing and important than the endless bickering between a father and a step-father. Unfortunately, they still seriously messed up the tone though. For some reason, they tried to make this tough subject easier to swallow but this feather light approach turned out to be really misguided. It’s too bad because the characters were actually pretty good and you can only wonder what would have been the end-result if they would have toned down the silly jokes. Coming back on the characters, Mark Whalberg and Rose Byrne made a convincing couple, they had some great chemistry together and there was nothing silly about the struggles they had to face. Concerning the kids, eventually, only Isabella Merced’s character was actually developed but even this character worked because she felt real. Indeed, it is hard to put in perspective how borderline impossible it must be for a teenager growing up through all her childhood in such a highly toxic environment to adjust in a seemingly normal family structure like the one displayed in this movie. Unfortunately, this problematic was barely scratched here but it was probably too much to ask for with such a mainstream inspiring comedy so much of the really dark stuff was eventually filtered out. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch dealing with an important subject and I think it is worth a look.